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PARIS — Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, faces charges of
negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days as France’s finance
minister.

After a fourth round of questioning before magistrates yesterday, Lagarde said she was returning
to her work in Washington. She called the investigation “without basis.”

She is the third IMF managing director in a decade to experience legal troubles.

Lagarde and her former chief of staff have been questioned about their role in a 2008
arbitration ruling that handed $531 million to Bernard Tapie, a French businessman with a checkered
past.

“After three years of proceedings, dozens of hours of questioning, the court found from the
evidence that I committed no offense, and the only allegation is that I was not sufficiently
vigilant,” she said in a statement.

The French investigation has reached the preliminary-charges stage, meaning there is reason to
suspect an infraction. Investigating judges can drop such a case or issue formal charges and send
it to trial.